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Thursday, November 25, 2004

Jean-Pierre Jeunet on trenches, Amelie and being French (or not)

"Un long dimanche de fiançailles/A Very Long Engagement" is probably THE hot ticket of the season. Jean-Pierre Jeunet's luscious First World War drama manages to be a superb movie experience, an excellent role for its Bambi-eyed star and topical (as the debate about sending soldiers to war is very much back on the agenda). Jeunet himself is letting the movie do most of the talking. But Screenplay Europe picked up two interviews of interest. For the French trade magazine Le film français, Jeunet and his producer talk about why Warner and not UGC released the film, and their byzantine struggle to get it recognised as being French (the union of French independent producers does not want majors such as Warner gobbling up local aid). Read the full piece in French right here.

On Indiewire, Jeunet talks about more practical matters, such as the difficulty of finding somewhere they could turn into a battlefield. "All of France is either farmland or built on," he explained. "We were looking at army land until another option came up." What about the anecdotes and details? "All true, even the horse in the tree," he says. Read the full interview here.

It has just been announced that the courts have decided in favour of the independents' association. So "A Very Long Engagement" is not French enough to qualify for special fiscal conditions. This despite the fact that it is in Franch, filmed entirely in France, based on a French book and directed by a French director with French actors.

The trouble is, rules are rules. And the producers should have read the fine print before engaging in the project. However, numerous French bodies are determined to overturn the decision which is clearly counter-productive and against the spirit of the law.